THE STUDENTS’ MASTERY IN USING QUESTION TAGS A CASE OF THE THIRD YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP N XXXX

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1General Background of the Study

It
is important to learn English because it is an international language for most
people around the world. Moreover, English is the first foreign language in Indonesia
and also one of the subjects taught in schools and courses.

Students
or learners may get problems in learning English as the foreign language
because there are many differences between Indonesian and English in term of
grammar, vocabulary, etc. According to the 1994 English curriculum of SMP, the
goal of English teaching at SMP is mainly to prepare the students to have the
language skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). The skills must be
taught integrated without ignoringthe
language components: vocabulary, pronunciation, and structures. Teachers should
not teach thelanguage skills and language components separately. And,it is hoped that the students can communicate
in the target language, both spoken and written. Consequently, grammar or
structure cannot be separated from language teaching, although the main goal is
to teach how to use language communicatively.

English
structure plays an importantrole in
understanding English. By mastering the English structure the students will be
able to develop their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.

English
structure also has an important role to avoid misunderstanding in communication.
Question Tags is one of topics which should be taught in the first term program
in the third years of SMP. According to Swan (1988:511) short questions or tag
questions are very common in spoken English. Native speakers often used them at
the ends of their sentences. The term of the same thing in Bahasa Indonesia is
kalimat pengukuh. In Bahasa Indonesia, it is also used very commonly in speech.
Weoften hear Indonesian people say
“bukan ?” at the ends of their sentences. Cook and Suter (1980:107) also stated
thattag questions are satements which
become questions by having a yes-no question element “tagged” on at?????????????